A year of intent.

2012 is my first, conscious year of intent.

There are a few things I mean by this.

First, I've set goals, or intentions, for the entire year. (More on these to come.) Second, I'm setting mini-intentions for each month. The goal is to eliminate a vice, crutch, or bad habit purposefully for 30 days.

My progress:
January
Went without pop/soda/cola
Whatever you call it, it's bad for us for a myriad of reasons. After my month-long endeavor, I've chosen to have 2012 be a year without soda. This is coming from a girl who would regularly drop by McDonald's for a vat of $1 Diet Coke, so it has been a definite lifestyle change. (Vat=commonly called a McDonald's large.)

February
Went without Facebook
It's a highly addictive, stream-of-consciousness source of noise 80% of the time, and really wonderful for staying in touch with people the other 20%. I honestly felt awesome not having it for a month - I used to wake up and check Facebook and Twitter before I even got out of bed. Eliminating this reduced my dependency on the Internet greatly. The fact that I got rid of it for the "month of love" also didn't hurt.

March
Went without french fries and alcohol
Two things due to Lent, and I struggled on both accounts. I ended up eating french fries at a lunch held for State DECA judges. I judged at both the regional and state DECA (high school marketing club) competitions and the lunch was quite limited. I caved, but only that one time!

To ward off alcohol on St. Patrick's Day, I volunteered to be a DD for Finnegan's pub crawl. Great idea, right? Well, after the first couple stops I ended up not being needed (they also had a limo and a Jeep.) So, well, I, umm...caved. Rounds were bought, drinks were had. When people kept justifying that I was "drinking for a cause" (FINNEGANS Irish Amber was the first beer in the world to donate 100% of its profits back to the community), I really couldn't feel bad about it!

 Did I mention we went "blonde" because Finnegan's recently released a blonde ale?

It was definitely worth it!


Have any of you taken on a year-long or month-long goal? Do you have any suggestions of what to give up (or a healthy alternative to add) for upcoming months?